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Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

Originally Posted by redsfandan

To be fair, GIDP did say that he had some experience with writing on a school paper in high school and apparently in college. On the flip side, I really don't agree at all with his statement that ANY HS graduate could take one class and be a pretty good writer. I just don't think it's that simple. Agree to disagree I guess.

I admit I was being a little over the top saying "any high school grad". Also remember I'm not saying just a good writer. I think there are a lot of very talented writers and a lot of them write for big publications. I just think what the local guy does isn't very difficult. With a little training I'm pretty sure a large portion of this country could put out what the enquirer puts out.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

My newspaper is fortunate because it's family-owned, not in debt, not the second newspaper in a two-newspaper town, not in a boom-and-bust part of the nation, with one of the highest-percentage readerships in the country and a good appreciation of online news. Still, it has to cope with the economy and the drop in national advertising. I guess I'm a little more optimistic than most.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

My take is the internet will overtake newspapers in metropolitan areas completely, and small towns eventually. But the local media will have to find a way to better inform and better market.

Right now local media fails miserably at this on the internet level. Most TV stations in the lower 100 markets do not have an internet writer. Usually it's just a producer tasked with copy and paste scripts from the last newscast aired. Getting news from a TV station online is hit or miss in quality. Local online newspapers are only as good as the printed version. Some good, some bad. but the marketing is bad all over.

Suck it up cupcake.

Raisel Iglesias is The Demon's Head. Accept this nickname as bestowed.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

Originally Posted by GIDP

Ive wrote for a high school paper, and some journalism in college, but I'm not even going to equate the 2 on the level of stress you might have if its your every day job. I still feel that job isn't that hard to do. I certainly feel I could do what John Fay does and I'm willing to bet given the same resources he has a large portion of this board could also.

In depth news is one thing but local report, write and take quotes news isn't all that complex of a thing to do. If its insulting fine, but I will stand by it.

I disagree with you here, quite vehemently. I'm not insulted by your comment, because I'm fairly sure you didn't mean it as an insult or to demean anyone.

But producing good, crisp copy in a short amount of time is very, very difficult. John Fay covers baseball, yes. And he's very lucky to do so. But the job isn't cake. He deals with limited access, standoffish players, frequent deadlines, a ridiculous amount of travel, etc. etc. I don't think that just anyone could do it, and do it well.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

Originally Posted by cincrazy

I disagree with you here, quite vehemently. I'm not insulted by your comment, because I'm fairly sure you didn't mean it as an insult or to demean anyone.

But producing good, crisp copy in a short amount of time is very, very difficult. John Fay covers baseball, yes. And he's very lucky to do so. But the job isn't cake. He deals with limited access, standoffish players, frequent deadlines, a ridiculous amount of travel, etc. etc. I don't think that just anyone could do it, and do it well.

case in point... John Fay. He doesn't do it well.

Suck it up cupcake.

Raisel Iglesias is The Demon's Head. Accept this nickname as bestowed.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

We could always just mount one of these in the town square.

a super volcano of ridonkulous suckitude.

I simply don't have access to a "cares about RBI" place in my psyche. There is a "mildly curious about OBI%" alcove just before the acid filled lake guarded by robot snipers with lasers which leads to the "cares about RBI" antechamber though. - Nate

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

Originally Posted by cincrazy

I disagree with you here, quite vehemently. I'm not insulted by your comment, because I'm fairly sure you didn't mean it as an insult or to demean anyone.

But producing good, crisp copy in a short amount of time is very, very difficult. John Fay covers baseball, yes. And he's very lucky to do so. But the job isn't cake. He deals with limited access, standoffish players, frequent deadlines, a ridiculous amount of travel, etc. etc. I don't think that just anyone could do it, and do it well.

I think I've made it clear you would obviously need some training but in the end I just dont see how these things are that hard. Heck John Fay could do his job just writing down the quotes from other people's questions. If you read the actual stories out of the enquirer I dont know how you couldnt feel as if you could write that. Heck maybe the hardest part of working for the Enquirer is getting a job that actually allows you to write on a consistent basis.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

I'll stick up for GIDP here. Journalists have prided themselves on not being professionally certified like other professions -- too independent for that. There's always been a certain amount of "working Joe with a keen eye and the right access" to the job as journalists see it. When bloggers came along, journalists started trying to differentiate what they do from the "amateurs." But it's not necessarily the talent or training that sets them apart. There are plenty of non-journalists who are truly experts in their fields who can now report and publish directly. Many times amateur bloggers home in on one subject, like sabremetrics, and master it in a way that a journalist who is going from one thing to another doesn't. In the future, a lot of journalism might be done by people who have day jobs. But there tends to be a lot of burnout and turnover among amateur bloggers. I think the biggest gap between journalists and non-journalists is about doing it for the long haul, doing it when no one else wants to, doing it when powerful people are trying to stop you.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

Originally Posted by BCubb2003

But there tends to be a lot of burnout and turnover among amateur bloggers. I think the biggest gap between journalists and non-journalists is about doing it for the long haul, doing it when no one else wants to, doing it when powerful people are trying to stop you.

And having access, at least so far. Not everyone can just call Joey Votto, or the senator, or a big CEO and get a comment for a story, schedule an interview, etc. Maybe some "amateur" bloggers will be able to some day, but not many so far.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

What I've started to see is a lot of local free or specialized publications taking over for the main newspaper. As they are often published on a weekly basis, they don't have the same overhead of a daily. I've noticed more in-depth investigative articles coming from local free weeklies than from my daily newspapers, which often rely on straight quotes or press releases from parties involved with little detail beyond that. I wonder if the way of the newspaper in the future is to merge some of these local weeklies, alternative newspapers, and specialized business journals to have a major weekly paper.

Burn down the disco. Hang the blessed DJ. Because the music that he constantly plays, it says nothing to me about my life.

Re: Enquirer Layoffs: The Tally So Far

July 20, 2009
Across U.S., ESPN Aims to Be the Home Team
By BROOKS BARNES
LOS ANGELES — Not content with being a sports colossus with broadcasts in 200 countries, ESPN is taking aim at hometown sports coverage, threatening one of the last strongholds of local newspapers and television stations.

ESPN has long dominated the coverage of national athletics, pumping out news and commentary on every major sport (and some not-so-major ones) via an expanding network of cable channels, Web sites and mobile services.

Now, after a promising test run in Chicago, ESPN is adding local offshoots to three more cities. On Monday, ESPN, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, plans to announce local Web sites in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas — in what executives say is only the “first inning” of their effort to provide hyperlocal sports coverage in cities across the country.

“We look at this as a perfect example of offering a better product,” said George W. Bodenheimer, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks.

Chicago news outlets, which have some experience competing directly with ESPN, acknowledge that the threat is real.

“We are taking ESPN’s marketing push seriously, and we are looking forward to the local sports turf battle in the weeks and months ahead,” said Bill Adee, The Chicago Tribune’s editor for digital media.

In less than three months, ESPN Chicago has become the city’s top sports site, attracting about 590,000 unique visitors in June, according to data from comScore, an Internet measurement company. Second place went to The Tribune’s online sports section with 455,000 unique visitors.

ESPN Chicago does not seem to have cut into The Tribune’s online sports audience as much as it has slowed its growth, according to a review of the traffic data.

At The Los Angeles Times, which is about to face ESPN head-on, the associate editor, Randy Harvey, said: “It would be foolish to underestimate ESPN, but it comes down to resources. I don’t see them being able to replicate what we do.”

Once ESPN establishes itself in local markets, it plans to move deeper into local sports — down to the high school level and perhaps beyond — by using social networking and other technology to inform its journalism.

Just as CNN offers news from everyday people through its iReport service, ESPN could augment its local coverage by tapping sports fans. Picture fathers uploading scores from their daughters’ soccer games.

“This initiative is perfect for exploring that opportunity,” said Mr. Bodenheimer, who also serves as president of ESPN and ABC Sports.

The company would say only that its costs are “minimal,” using existing resources to expand; in fact, ESPN says it is hiring only about 15 new people for the sites in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. The Dallas site will start in the fall, the other two early next year.

These moves have challenges, even for a company with pockets as deep as ESPN. Sports fans, loyal to their local newspaper columnists, could balk at the continued march of ESPN across the sports news landscape, and the media giant could easily run afoul of local quirks. Costs also may be difficult to control, and maintaining editorial standards with content supplied by fans might be difficult.

Also, Fox Sports has successful cable networks in several regional markets, but its Web presence is minimal and for the most part does not focus on high schools.

The New York Daily News and The Dallas Morning News had no comment over the weekend on ESPN’s plans.

Sports also bring a global audience to the Web sites of local papers. ESPN wants those people, who are probably also checking ESPN.com, to stay entirely within its arms.

ESPNChicago.com, introduced on April 13, is the model. The site covers the city’s seven professional teams and sports at nine area colleges, much of it already offered on ESPN’s other platforms. Plans are afoot to expand coverage to area high schools.

There is also a focus on pickup leisure sports. Organizing a neighborhood softball league? ESPN Chicago has a tool to help. The site’s coverage, from news wires and ESPN staff, is augmented by original reporting from a local team of editors, columnists and bloggers — some of them familiar to sports fans from their previous work at The Chicago Sun-Times and the local NBC affiliate.

The site also offers a daily Chicago edition, three to six minutes long, of its flagship “SportsCenter” program.

“Huge” is how Stacey Woelfel, chairman of the Radio Television News Directors Association, described the potential threat to TV stations, in part because their Web presence in sports “tends to be fairly weak.”

ESPN, of course, is going after local ad dollars, as well as readers. Chicago Lincoln-Mercury dealers, Hilton Hotels of Chicago, MillerCoors and Hawthorne Race Course have been among ESPN Chicago’s advertisers.

“A national sports brand that’s dedicated to your local market? It hasn’t really been seen before,” said Ray Elias, marketing director for StubHub, the ticket resale marketplace and an early partner with ESPN Chicago.

Although local advertising in print, radio and television has plunged in recent years — led by a drop in spending from car dealerships — online advertising is growing. The Kelsey Group, which studies local media, values the local online ad market at about $16 billion and expects it to double by 2013.

John Kosner, ESPN’s digital media chief, played down the competitive threat posed by his company’s plan. “You’ve got outstanding newspapers and television stations that have been in these markets forever and have strong followings,” he said. “Our presence will be additive.”

Mr. Kosner even hinted at collaboration. “It’s not a foregone conclusion that we will be independent” in every market, he said. ESPN already has some content-sharing partnerships with local newspapers.

ESPN, which broadcasts “Monday Night Football,” has looked for a way to go local for years, but the growth potential was always outweighed by the costs of deploying local reporters and ad staffs. Sites that simply aggregated what ESPN was already doing would be quickly dismissed by fans, Mr. Kosner said.

To address the costs, ESPN is building off its radio stations’ Web sites. The company owns five stations — in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Pittsburgh — and counts more than 350 others as affiliates.

“We decided to take those sites, set up to service the station, and turn them on their ear to service the consumer,” said Jim Pastor, senior vice president of the ESPN Radio Station Group.

Localization will not pad ESPN’s bottom line anytime soon. But it could turn into a significant growth engine over time.

“Efforts like this might not sound so meaningful,” said Michael Morris of UBS. “But if this area takes off, and ESPN’s success record is astounding, it could really add up in a hurry.”

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